Rangel Joins Reps. Maloney and Honda in Introducing Bill to Create Bipartisan Commission on How U.S. Government Serves Americans Living Overseas

Press Release

Congressman Charles Rangel joined Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Mike Honda (D-CA) in introducing legislation to create a Federal commission to study the impact of government policies upon the millions of Americans living overseas.

The Commission on Americans Living Abroad Act would fill an unfilled gap by making sure United States policies do not have unnecessary consequences for Americans living overseas. Since millions of Americans live and work overseas, those often unintended consequences can have large negative impacts.

"This commission would give Congress an opportunity to look under the hood of this issue and see what's working, what isn't, and what can work better," Rep. Rangel said. "It's our elected responsibility to ensure American citizens here and abroad are equally protected by their nation's laws and Executive actions."

The legislation creates a 15-member bipartisan Executive Commission to study the impact of U.S. laws and Executive actions on the overseas Americans community. The study would then be used to make recommendations for actions Congress and the Executive Branch could take to improve collaboration and communication of policies impacting this community. Specific areas of federal policy the Commission is charged with looking into are tax and banking policy (including FATCA, Banking Secrecy Act, USA PATRIOT Act), immigration, voting, access to federal benefits (Medicare, Social Security), and student loans.